Lunch lecture: Towards a Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty (12/10)

Lunch lecture: Towards a Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty (12/10)

· by · in ,

Civil society in de VN

On Wednesday October 12th the United Nations Association Flanders – Belgium and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies organize a lunch lecture on ‘Towards a Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty’ in the United Nations Regional Information Centre, Brussels.

Registration

Wednesday 12 October 2016, 12.00-14.00
United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC)
8th floor, block C2
Wetstraat 155, Brussels

Register now!

Programme

Light Sandwich lunch (12:00 pm – 12:30 pm)

Lecture (12:30 pm – 14:00 pm)

  • Chair: Prof. Dr. Jan Wouters (President UNA Flanders-Belgium)
  • Presentation by Sigurd Schelstraete (Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Department; Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, missile technology; National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgium)

Background

While public concern over nuclear arms may be no way near the level of the early eighties, the issue of nuclear disarmament has retained its salience within the confines of multilateral disarmament fora. A recent coalition of countries, backed up by a boisterous civil society, tries to reset the terms of the discussion by striving for an immediate ban on nuclear weapons. Plans to start the negotiations of a “ban treaty” in 2017 will definitely shake up the disarmament debate in the coming months, but will it simmer down into declaratory policy or generate a genuine impetus? After anti-personnel mines, now nuclear weapons? And are we squaring off with the Nonproliferation Treaty? In the talk, a Belgian perspective on the current state of nuclear disarmament will be offered.

Sigurd Schelstraete is currently working at the Department of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His main areas of activity concern chemical and nuclear weapons. His most recent foreign posting was at the Embassy in Washington, where he served as Deputy Chief of Mission. Previously, he worked at the Representation to the EU, where he followed the activities of the Political and Security Committee, with a focus on politico-military affairs. He spent five years dealing with political affairs and peacekeeping issues at the Belgian Representation to the UN in New York. His first posting was in Kigali as part of the first Embassy team after the end of the 1994 genocide.